Coalition To Develop Rating System for Video Games

With the threat of Congressional action looming, a coalition of
video-game producers and retailers announced plans last week to develop
a system for rating games for violence and mature themes.

However, the industry's united front evaporated later the same day,
as representatives of the two largest game producers--Nintendo of
America Inc. and Sega of America Inc.--traded jabs during a Senate
hearing over the violence level of each other's games.

When a Sega official at the Dec. 9 hearing defended two violent
games, saying they were intended for adults, Howard C. Lincoln, a
senior vice president at Nintendo, said: "I can't just sit here and
allow you to be told that the video-game industry has been transformed
from children [as primary consumers] to adults.''

When Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., criticized Sega for a toy
pistol called "the Justifier'' that comes with a Sega-system game
called "Lethal Enforcers,'' William White, a Sega senior vice
president, countered by pulling out a Nintendo accessory that looks
like a bazooka.

Senator Lieberman said both toys looked like weapons and did not
belong in the hands of children.

Despite their sniping, both officials pledged to help develop
voluntary warning labels for games and advertising. Major game
retailers and renters such as Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, and Blockbuster
Video will participate, the officials said.

The Senate hearing was held by subcommittees of the Judiciary and
Governmental Affairs committees. With Congress between sessions, only
three senators attended, but the issue drew a crowd of onlookers. In
addition to Sen. Lieberman, Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., and Sen. Byron L.
Dorgan, D-N.D., attended.

Parental-Warning System

Senators Lieberman and Kohl have proposed legislation that would
establish a five-member panel to create a parental-warning system. They
said they would continue work on the bill to insure that the industry
follows through on its promise to establish its own system.

"If you don't do something about it, we will,'' Senator Kohl
said.

Senator Lieberman showed excerpts from two video games frequently
cited as among the most violent on the market. In "Mortal Kombat,''
players of a martial-arts game may finish off their on-screen opponent
by ripping out his heart or by decapitating him. Both Sega and Nintendo
offer the game for their systems, but Nintendo's version eliminates
some of the violence.

In "Night Trap,'' a player tries to keep hooded men from attacking
scantily clad sorority members with a tool designed to suck their
blood. Sega, but not Nintendo, sells a version of the game.

"'Mortal Kombat' and 'Night Trap' are not the kinds of gifts that
responsible parents should give as gifts,'' Senator Kohl said.

Mr. White of Sega defended "Night Trap'' as "an appropriate form of
entertainment for adults who want to be entertained in this way, shape,
and form.''

He noted that since September, Sega has used a parental-warning
system that labels games as appropriate for general audiences,
teenagers, or people 17 and older.

But both Sega and Nintendo acknowledged that they have no way to
prevent children from seeing some of the more violent games.

The panel also heard from Eugene F. Provenzo Jr., the author of a
book on video games.

"Video games are overwhelmingly violent, sexist, and racist,'' he
said. Of the 47 most popular video games in the country, 40 had
violence as their main theme, he said.